Filip Miiller's book is a unique document indeed: it is the
testimony of the only man who saw theJewish people die and Hved
to tell what he saw. It is not known exactly how many people were
murdered in the Auschwitz gas chambers, but the estimates run
around three and a half million. Miiller came to Auschwitz with
one of the earliest transports from Slovakia in April 1942, and
began working in the gassing installations and crematoria in May.
He managed to stay alive until November 1944, when the gassings
ceased. By a stroke of sheer luck he survived. He saw the millions
come and disappear. He saw the families, the townships and the
cities of the Jewish people come, enter the house of death and
burn to ashes. He saw a civilization being destroyed by devils in
ordinary, human form. He not only saw the martyrs, but also
spoke to Satan. He tells his story in simple, straightforward
language. There is no embellishment, no deviation. This is not a
work of art. It is a testimony.
It is a testimony also of a human being who decided, at one
point, not to suffer any longer and to choose death. In the same
simple, matter-of-fact way that he relates the scenes of hell and
fire that he witnessed, he tells the story of his attempted suicide,
and the ultimate cruelty of the SS guard who prevented it; he tells
of the beauty of Yana's death in the horror of the mass murder,
perhaps the most poignant story of any Holocaust testimony.
Miiller is neither a historian nor a psychologist; he does not
analyse or dissect. But what he tells is of tremendous importance
to both, and to the generations of vicarious survivors, Jewish and
non-Jewish: for we all are the survivors of man's madness. Some
will notice the lack of successful resistance ; some will notice the

fact that the author does not mention any case ofJews begging for
their lives ; some will emphasize the fact that most of the Jews
going to the gas chambers had no inkling of what was happening
to them ; others will analyse the behaviour of the SS murderers.
This is a vital testimony, and it will undoubtedly serve as an
element in attempting to approach understanding the dread that
was Auschwitz, although none of us that was not there can cross
the threshold of knowledge.
The Jewish people, some thousands of gypsy people and many
others were murdered in the gas chambers. Thousands of others
were shot. This unembellished telling is a terrible accusation
against God and humanity.
Why did Miiller not publish his memoir before? He did, in a
way. He returned to his Czechoslovak home after the war. A
summary of his testimony was included in a book in
Czechoslovakia in 1946 (published in English in 1966 as The Death
Factory, by O. Kraus and E. Kulka). He was moved to write again by
the effect of his testimony at the 'Auschwitz trial' at Frankfurt, in
1964. Afterwards he began writing up what he had jotted down,
had it translated into German, then looked for a publisher. The
result is before us : a shattering, centrally important testimony of
the sole survivor of the whole span of the murder operations of the
Auschwitz-Birkenau killing centre, of the anus mundi. We must
contend with Filip Miiller's testimony, if we want our civilization
to survive.

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